The Gold King and his Calendar

King Ostereg II of the Fanuel Empire decreed in Springborn of 7688 upon the death of his father, Ostereg I, that a new era would begin thus wiping away centuries of fear-minded isolationism. He created a new tax system to reward merchants to journey into other lands and sell Fanuei goods. As trade improved, so did the need for new means of communication and standardized dates between the Fanuel Empire and the outlying countries.

In the fifth year of King Ostereg II’s reign, Fanuei goods were in the hands of all neighboring nations. Now with the need to solidify civil relations between his and the surrounding kingdoms, Ostereg II commissioned the first Golden Calendar to mark the prosperous years to follow.

Thus was born in 7693 LC (Logost Credi, or the local calendar to the Fanuel Empire) the Golden Calendar which started as Year 1 on the First Day of the First Moon of 7693 LC, the 28th birthday of King Ostereg II.

The Golden Calendar divided the 370-day year into 12 months. The two seasons, Summer and Winter, each had six months within them with all but the first month of each season having 31 days; the first month had 30. Hence months 1 and 7 had 30 days and all others had 31.

When King Ostereg II died in 68 GC at the old human age of 96 years, the Empire entered into a period of mourning and it was decreed by his daughter, Queen Periss, a period of remembrance be created celebrating the Gold King’s deeds and a time when the Empire would give back to its citizenry. The calendar would be changed once more to encompass a two week period of celebration after the first harvest in Winter. By doing so, the Queen took the 370-day year, made all 12 months have 30 days and inserted the two week long celebration known as “Festival of Osteregina” after the 8th month. Each week, like the preceding calendar, had six days.

Likewise, the month names were changed to reflect harvest seasons. While this brought about an outcry from the more religious who favored their varied religious holidays and similarly named months, Queen Periss was notoriously secular as she understood religion would divide a nation internally. Furthermore, all countries had harvests of some kind and conducted something of the same practices around the same time of year.

The months are based on the wonderfully regular Serith which has a 30 day cycle and is the closer of the two moons.
Serith’s sister, the larger yet more distant Dio (DIE-oh), has a regular cycle of 90 days.

In some cultures, particular those that follow Erithis in her fertility aspect the months are based on Dio’s rotation with the year being 360 days long with a four year cycle of varied length seasons.